If so be that we suffer, &c.— Observe how prudently the Apostle advances to the harsh affair of suffering; he does not mention it, till he had raised their thoughts to the higher object of joy and pleasure;—the happiness and glory of a joint-inheritance with the ever-blessed Son of God:—we are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if we suffer with him, &c. This, with the additional consideration that we suffer with Christ, or as he himself suffered, and that our suffering patiently is the way to be glorified with him, would greatly qualify the transitory afflictions of this world, and dispose them to attend to the other arguments that he had to offer. See 2 Timothy 2:11 and Locke.

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